18 free cloud storage options | Network World

From Box to DropBox, Google to Apple, theres plenty of free storage to be had in the cloud. Many companies use free cloud storage as a way to entice users into their clouds in hopes that they will pay more for additional storage.

Below, in alphabetical order, are 18 free cloud services but a word of warning: The market for free cloud storage is volatile and offers from these vendors can change frequently, including being eliminated with little or no warning.

Details: Amazon Web Services business-oriented cloud storage service named Simple Storage Service (S3) has a tier of up to 5GB of free storage. On the consumer side, Amazon Prime members get free unlimited cloud storage for photos in Amazon Cloud Drive with their subscription, which costs $99 per year and includes free two-day shipping on eligible Amazon.com products. For non Amazon-prime members, unlimited photos can be stored for $11.99 per year after a three-month free trial. For $59.99 per year Amazon offers an Unlimited Everything plan, which allows any file or document to be stored.

More information: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon S3

The deal: 5GB of free cloud storage

Details: Apple iCloud Drive comes with 5GB of free cloud storage. Users looking to bump up their storage can do so for $0.99/month for 50GBs; $2.99/month for 200GB; $9.99/month for 1TB and $19.99 for 2TB. ICloud is meant for Apple users, but there is an iCloud app for Windows. A third-party app is needed to access iCloud storage from Android devices.

More information: Apple iCloud

The deal: 10GB free cloud storage

Details: Backblaze offers personal computer backup and business cloud storage services. But it also has an offer for 10GB of free cloud storage. Additional storage is $0.005/GB/month. There is a limit in the free version of 1GB downloaded per day. Mac and PC backups are $5 per computer per month, or $50 per year. Business plans start at $5 per computer per month, or $5 per month per TB.